March 26, 2025

Space Force Certifies Vulcan for National Security Launches (Source: Space News)
The U.S. Space Force has certified United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur rocket, allowing that vehicle to conduct national security missions. The Space Force’s Space Systems Command announced March 26 it completed the long-awaited certification of Vulcan after analyzing data from the rocket’s two certification launches in January and October of 2024 as well as other reviews of the rocket’s development. (3/26)

Gravitics Selected by Space Force for $60M STRATFI to Demonstrate Revolutionary Orbital Carriers (Source: Gravitics)
Gravitics has been selected for a Strategic Funding Increase (STRATFI) by SpaceWERX of the United States Space Force with potential funding of up to $60 million between government funds, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funds, and private funds to demonstrate and fly the Orbital Carrier, a groundbreaking solution for tactically responsive space.

The Orbital Carrier is designed to pre-position multiple maneuverable space vehicles that can deliver a rapid response to address threats on orbit. This carrier will provide the U.S. Space Force with unprecedented flexibility and speed for in-space operations, significantly enhancing the nation's space defense posture. (3/26)

Space Mining – Is the Time Now? (Source: SpaceCom)
The dream of space mining—extracting valuable resources from the Moon and asteroids—has long captured the imagination of visionaries and entrepreneurs. While early ventures like Planetary Resources and Deep Space Industries failed to gain traction, a new wave of companies is reigniting the industry with fresh technology, funding, and ambition. With NASA’s push for lunar exploration and the demand for in-space resources growing, the question remains: is space mining finally on the cusp of becoming a reality?

Going to the heavens for riches and expanding humanity’s reach isn’t a new idea, but like nuclear fusion, reality has yet to catch up with dreams. A quick search turns up “Asteroid Mining May be a Reality by 2025,” published by Space.com in August 2015. Back then, Planetary Resources had deployed its first spacecraft and Deep Space Industries was showing pretty pictures of its spacecraft, with the companies more than happy to tell everyone that they were in pole position to turn far away rocks into earthly profit, while Shackelton Energy Company promoted its idea to mine the Moon. 

A decade later, both companies are gone, the latter’s web address now owned by a Korean firm discussing how to find the best baccarat sites -- an unintended irony given the gambling going on by the latest generation of would-be asteroid and lunar miners. The Asteroid Mining Corporation (AMC), AstroForge, Karman+, and TransAstra are among the start-ups that want to be a part of the second wave of space mining, but one company clearly seems to be ahead of the pack. Click here. (3/25)

Startup CEO Accused of Spending Investor Cash on ‘Call Girls’ After Financial Regulators Barred Him From Wall Street (Source: Independent)
The founder of a New York-based aerospace startup developing high-tech rocket thrusters that have garnered glowing press coverage and at least one contract with the U.S. Space Force is accused of plundering investor funds to underwrite pricey jaunts to Europe, jewelry for his wife, child support payments, and, according to the company’s largest investor, “airline tickets for international call girls to join him for clandestine weekends in Miami.”

Onetime stockbroker Christopher Craddock established RocketStar in 2014 after financial regulators barred him from working on Wall Street over a raft of alleged violations. Craddock held the firm out as “an entity that intended to reinvent space exploration,” states a $6 million lawsuit filed by former CEO Michael Mojtahedi.

According to Mojtahedi’s complaint, RocketStar “is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme… [that] has been predicated on Craddock’s ability to con new people each time the company has run out of money.” “Craddock recklessly and lavishly misappropriated for his lifestyle almost every cent RocketStar received from investors, running the company into the ground by August 2024,” the complaint says. “At that point, Craddock’s ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ lifestyle caught up with him, investor funds dried up completely, and his house of cards collapsed.” (3/24)

Maxar Introduces Drone Navigation System to Bypass GPS (Source: Business Insider)
Drone operators on modern battlefields are facing intense electronic warfare, with enemy jamming making it outrageously difficult to fly with GPS. Maxar, a leading satellite imagery company, has unveiled a new solution to this problem that bypasses GPS by having drones rely on what they see and three-dimensional global terrain data.

The company announced Raptor, a "first-of-its-kind" program, on Tuesday. It's designed for integration on any uncrewed aerial system; no additional hardware is required. Raptor about visual recognition and data matching. With the software, a drone operator can compare the drone's camera feed with Maxar's data in real time and figure out where the system is and where it needs to go. (3/24)

Intuitive Machines Posts $41 Million Loss, to Focus on Diversification (Source: Space News)
Intuitive Machines is emphasizing diversification beyond lunar landers. In an earnings call this week, the company promoted projects such as a satellite network at the moon to provide communications and navigation services, as well as an orbital transfer vehicle based on its Nova-C lander. Intuitive Machines reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $41.7 million in 2024 on $228 million in revenue, and the company said it is on track for positive adjusted EBITDA in 2026. The company is among those scheduled to testify at a hearing next week by the House Science Committee's space subcommittee on NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services program. (3/26)

Vietnam Gives Starlink a Trial Run (Source: Reuters)
The government of Vietnam has approved Starlink services on a trial basis. The government said Wednesday that Starlink can provide services in the country, with no foreign ownership restrictions, through the end of 2030, but limits the number of subscribers to 600,000. SpaceX had worked for several years to win approvals to operate in Vietnam but encountered roadblocks in government limits on foreign ownership of such services. (3/26)

Parker Solar Probe Wins Collier Trophy (Source: NAA)
NASA's Parker Solar Probe mission has won a major aeronautics trophy. The National Aeronautic Association awarded the 2024 Collier Trophy to the Parker Solar Probe mission for its achievement of flying closer to the sun than any other spacecraft, coming within 6.1 million kilometers in December. The mission team will receive the award at a ceremony in June. Parker is the fourth consecutive NASA mission to receive the Collier Trophy, awarded for the greatest achievement in aeronautics or astronautics in the U.S. It follows the Ingenuity Mars helicopter in 2021, James Webb Space Telescope in 2022 and OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission in 2023. (3/26)

Space Force to Purchase Commercial Surveillance/Tracking Services (Source: Space News)
The Space Force is getting $40 million to purchase commercial surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking services. The money was included as an add-on to the fiscal year 2025 continuing resolution funding the federal government approved earlier this month. The director of the Space Force's Commercial Space Office (COMSO) said the money represents a vote of confidence in the service's efforts to tap the commercial space market, providing a dedicated budget line as well as additional funding spread among other budget lines for purchasing commercial services. (3/26)

Space Force to Maintain Confidentiality of Space Reserve Companies (Source: Space News)
The Space Force  plans to keep confidential the companies participating in a new space reserve program. COMSO will not disclose the identities of the companies selected for the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) program, an effort to create a reserve of commercial satellites and services to augment government-owned systems in times of crisis. COMSO says that confidentiality is intended to protect participating companies from potential adversary threats, although those companies can disclose their participation if they choose. The first four companies signed CASR agreements March 1 for an initial three-month pilot program, supplying space domain awareness data to help track and analyze objects in orbit. (3/26)

California to Buy Satellite Data for Methane Tracking (Source: Space News)
The California state government plans to buy $95 million in satellite data to track methane emissions. California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced the three-year, $95 million contract award by the California Air Resources Board to nonprofit Carbon Mapper to process and disseminate data gathered by Planet's Tanager hyperspectral imaging satellites. California will use the data to identify sources of methane emissions as part of an effort to reduce such emissions by 40% from 2013 levels. The state government is also providing $5 million to help communities apply the data to reduce emissions. (3/26)

Spain Invests $15 Million in Sateliot (Source: Space News)
The Spanish government is investing $15 million into satellite startup Sateliot. The funding, part of a Series B round of up to 70 million euros ($75 million) the company is raising, will go toward expansion of a constellation of satellites using 5G protocols to relay data from tracking and monitoring devices. The company, with six satellites in orbit now, wants to scale up its constellation to at least 100 satellites as it begins commercial services later this year. (3/26)

UCF Professor Nominated to Become NASA CFO (Source: Space News)
The White House has nominated Greg Autry to be NASA's chief financial officer (CFO).  Autry is assistant provost for space commercialization and strategy at the University of Central Florida and was the White House liaison at NASA in part of the first Trump administration. He was nominated to be NASA CFO in 2020 but the full Senate did not take up the nomination. This new nomination is classified as "privileged," which allows the full Senate to consider it without a hearing or vote by the Senate Commerce Committee. That committee has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing for Jared Isaacman, the White House's nominee to lead the agency. (3/26)

FSU Researchers Part of TESSERACT's Hunt for Dark Matter (Source: Space Daily)
For decades, people have been trying to directly detect dark matter: the missing mass in our universe. Now, research from the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering is making possible a new, super-sensitive detector - and even though it's still in the research and development phase, it's already been able to search for kinds of dark matter that other detectors can't find.

Historically, most dark matter searches have hunted for two kinds of dark matter: ultra-light axions and heavier WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles). But the new TESSERACT experiment - which stands for Transition-Edge Sensors with Sub-EV Resolution And Cryogenic Targets - searches between these regimes, looking for low-mass dark matter about a hundred to a thousand times lighter than a WIMP. (3/25)

JAXA Adopts Spirent Lunar Navigation Simulation to Advance Moon Missions (Source: Space Daily)
Spirent Communications has been chosen by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to deliver an advanced lunar positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) simulation system. This groundbreaking tool is designed to underpin JAXA's ongoing lunar exploration efforts and support the creation of essential navigation systems for future Moon missions.

The PNT X platform developed by Spirent allows JAXA to conduct in-lab simulations of lunar PNT services before deployment in space. This approach ensures mission-critical navigation components meet operational demands in alignment with LunaNet standards. Among these are scalable S-band frequency solutions, which are key to expanding lunar mission capabilities in the years ahead. (3/26)

ACES Mission Moves Closer to Launch from ISS (Source: Space Daily)
ESA's Atomic Clock Ensemble in Space (ACES) has reached NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, marking a pivotal step in its upcoming deployment to the International Space Station. This European-led mission is designed to explore the boundaries of fundamental physics by measuring time from orbit with extraordinary accuracy. Earlier in March, the ACES payload departed Europe and made its way across the Atlantic. Upon arrival in Florida, the unit was moved into the Space Station Processing Facility cleanroom, where it underwent a series of essential inspections and tests. (3/26)

Delft and Brown Researchers Unveil Ultrathin Sails for Laser Propulsion in Space (Source: Space Daily)
Researchers from Delft University of Technology and Brown University have introduced a breakthrough in nanotechnology with the development of large-scale, ultrathin lightsails, poised to accelerate advances in both space travel and experimental physics. Their work outlines novel materials and techniques that yield the thinnest extensive reflectors ever fabricated. (3/25)

Chinese Meridian Phase II Sets New Benchmark in Global Space Weather Monitoring (Source: Space Daily)
China has reached a pivotal achievement in space science with the official completion and national acceptance of Phase II of the Chinese Meridian Project (CMP) on March 21. This endeavor marks the establishment of the world's first integrated ground-based system capable of monitoring the entire Sun-Earth space environment, from the solar atmosphere through to near-Earth regions.

Initiated in 2019, CMP Phase II implemented a strategic "two vertical, two horizontal" cross-shaped monitoring network aligned along the 100 E and 120 E longitudes, and the 30 N and 40 N latitudes. The expansion incorporated 16 additional observation sites alongside the original 15 Phase I locations, enabling enhanced three-dimensional detection of space weather events, including solar activity and terrestrial atmospheric reactions. (3/24)

Space Health Nexus Symposium Planned at KSC April 22-23 (Source: CommHIT)
Join us as we focus on the intersection of space exploration and human health. In addition to having expert insights, fascinating discussions, and networking opportunities, you will gain an understanding of what human space flight advancements are applicable in our communities, pre-hospital settings, hospitals, and daily life.

New advancements in health, tech, workforce, and care models to meet the extreme environments and limitations of space can already be used on terra firma. Plus, learn new space-related workforce opportunities for those in healthcare, research, and tech. Click here. (3/25)

Space Force Celebrates Return of 1st Guardian to Launch to Space (Source: Space.com)
U.S. Space Force Col. Nick Hague is back on Earth after living on the ISS for the last five-plus months. On March 18, Hague splashed down in the SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon capsule "Freedom" with fellow NASA astronauts Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov. Hague holds the distinction of being the first Space Force Guardian to launch into orbit. (3/25)

Astronomer Calculated the Exact Day a Star Will Blow—and It’s This Week (Source: Gizmodo)
Astronomers have been watching a small constellation in the night sky, waiting for a nearby binary star system to explode. The wait may finally be over: A numerical estimate predicts the rare nova eruption could happen on Thursday, March 27. T Coronae Borealis (T CrB), also known as the Blaze Star, is a binary star system located 3,000 light-years from Earth. It periodically explodes in a recurring nova every 79 years or so, and it’s due for an impending eruption.

To better pinpoint the next eruption date, the astronomer behind the 2024 study, Jean Schneider of the Paris Observatory, combined the previous explosion dates with the orbital dynamics of the star system. The researcher found that the nova eruptions occurred at intervals that were an exact multiple of the star system’s orbital period—meaning the explosions happened after a specific number of orbits the stars completed around each other. (3/25)